NGO Development in China: Challenges and Opportunities

Date: 29 March 2012, 4pm

Place: 18 Kelburn Parade Room 204, Kelburn Campus, Victoria University

Speaker: Dr Dongfang Wang, China Centre Visiting Fellow, Ph.D China University of Political Science and Law, China

After more than three decades of reform, China has achieved significantly on market economic development. At the same time, we have also seen profound social and political change that has an increasingly bearing on the existing organization of society and the public sector, and the structure of state-society relationship. The development of non-government organizations (NGOs) is a key catalyst in this dynamic change. There is an exploding number of NGOs in China, with the continuously expanding scope and various different forms of their activities, and the complex set of mechanisms in which they relate to the public sector and society. These have posed a significant challenge to the existing tight state-society relationship and the institutional setup of the public sector, and public services in particular.

This seminar looks at the development of the NGO sector in China: their background, functions and mechanisms, and direction of their further development. The seminar will particularly discuss how the growth of the NGO sector relates to the broad issue of change in state-society relationship, to the large project of the public sector reform, particularly reform in public services, and what all of this means for the historical social and political transformation in China.

About the speaker

Dr Dongfang Wang graduated with a Ph.D in Public Administration from Renmin University of China. She is currently a lecturer at the Political Science and Public Management, China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL). She is also the Deputy Director of Risk Management Research Center at the School of Political Science and Public Administration and the Union Chairman and Chairman of the Faculty Representatives Committee at CUPL.